Since Gov Como in New York is waiting for a Shale Health Conference/study.... that puts off more production in that area...will the outcome of this study affect the price?...maybe the price of having health insurance if you live in shale areas.

Boone Pickens' enthusiasm notwithstanding, U.S. natural gas prices don't appear to be headed higher any time soon, as pipelines coming into service by year end are poised to extend the current supply glut. Deliveries from the Marcellus shale could grow by 30%, as ~1,000 area shale wells that now sit uncompleted because of a lack of pipeline infrastructure gradually come online. [View news story]

Chesapeake Energy (CHK-0.9%) is downgraded to Hold at Stifel Nicolaus on valuation, a view that remaining asset sales will have less of a positive impact on shares, and that the focus will switch from distressed valuations back to going concern valuations which will make it difficult for CHK to move much higher absent a meaningful gas recovery. [View news story]

Chesapeake's financials mirror how they conduct themselves in urban drilling. They need to put scrubbers on their open hatch (18"x18") flowback tanks that waft white, steamy, hydrocarbons into the neighborhoods in Arlington TX. The Truman / Cowboy Stadium is a perfect, upcoming example of their disregard for the safety of neaby workers, stadium visitors, renters, and home owners in the area. They fracked 3 wells in Sept. and won't flowback until the pipeline is connected by year end, and so all that stale, festering flowback will vent into my family's airshed and we need them to put scrubbers on those open hatch flowback tanks!

The "offbook" debt is a huge concern as tokyostory88 points out. The industry as a whole needs to also address public concerns on unconventional shale practices and those sweet spots in urban areas like in Arlington TX......they need to make it a standard practice to always use electric rigs in all airsheds.

All mud farming (private and commercial) needs to be subject to open records of water and soil test results.

We need the industry to invent technology to keep the toxic, silica dust on the padsite-those pathetic pillow case looking socks aren't getting the job done.

Please add scrubbers to the open hatch flowback tanks during topflow.

Once the topflow hydrocarbonated flowback is of the "gas to fluid saleable ratio" and ready to connect to a pipline/sales meter, we shouldn't have to wait 2.5 years for the EPA mandated Green Completions and allow venting or flaring in urban or rural areas....methane losses should be prevented-period.

The pipeline should be in place FIRST before fracturing so that flowback doesn't sit in the ground for months festering some unknown, man-made hydrogen sulfide-like stale water flowback.

The setback away from people should be substantial. Rural method drilling is not acceptable in urban areas. A doctor who is an environmental tester said that the health effects are being seen downwind from about 1,800 - 2,500 feet.

Lastly, the industry should be able to guarantee that the casings will last "on the majority of them", and that the injections wells won't cause regrettable seismic events or migrate their horrid contents eventually into our drinking water.

"Where is the demand for Nat gas going to come from?"..If cities have their mayors like Ft Worth and Arlington have their commericals on radio and in the council meetings about how the garbage trucks need to be converted to run on natural gas, then that is a win for the ANGA group that years ago invited those mayors to an Oklahoma convention to brain wash them into doing this so they can keep drilling in their towns.....so far its working at least in Arlington as they plan to do this.

Chk needs to disclose every gas well that is tied to a Volumetric Production Payment Contract so the owners of those minerals can make sure they did NOT drill that well so that it had an impressive Initial Production rate .....Chk has been accused of overproducing wells at the mineral owners expense (getting the motherload out at the lowest possible price).

ConocoPhillips (COP) is the latest foreign oil firm to express interest in Chinese shale, showing how just as Chinese oil companies pile into North American shale gas, the reverse also is increasingly true. This week, China said it is offering 20 blocks in a shale gas tender, the first time foreign companies will be allowed to participate in JV bids as minority partners. [View news story]

Shale is unconventional energy and the rush has caused innocent people like me to leave the "working for a paycheck" life, and pursue "working for the truth". Now that I am enlightened, I need to make sure this "truth works for change" to make urban drilling safer to live near.

Aside from methane leaks that speed up global warming (not climate change which is cyclical), I need investors in shale to "reason" with the industry, and so I need you to help me speak to them as they are not responsive to me.

I live at ground zero for urban drilling. We have about 60 padsites in our 99 sq mile town here in Arlington TX. The following requests won't cover public protections on the huge buildout and the associated human errors or accidents (we had a drill spill in Lake Arlington, our drinking source, a couple of years ago and have had maybe a dozen emission events over the last couple of years that I am aware of)….

Please make it a standard practice to always use electric rigs in urban areas.

All mud farming is subject to open records of water and soil test results.

We need the industry to invent technology to keep the toxic, silica dust on the padsite-those pathetic pillow case looking socks aren't getting the job done.

Please add scrubbers to the open hatch flowback tanks during topflow, and we shouldn't have to wait 2.5 years for EPA mandated Green Completions.

The pipeline should be in place FIRST before fracturing so that flowback doesn't sit in the ground for months festering a man-made hydrogen sulfide of stale water flowback.

The setback away from people should be very far. A doctor who is an environmental tester said that the health effects are being seen downwind from about 1,800 - 2,500 feet.

Lastly, the industry should be able to guarantee that the casings will last "on the majority of them", and that the injections wells won't cause regrettable seismic events or migrate their horrid contents eventually into our drinking water.

If the city governments would get wise and write into their gas drilling ordinance that water is being withheld for fracking until the price goes back up, then it will be a win win for all three parties 1)the drillers can claim force majoure and not have to comply with their contracts 2) the mineral holders will not get their minerals produced at the worst possible economic times and 3) the city will get higher royalties later too once the price goes back up. Heaven forbid that the majority of the EUC on these wells have peaked in the first 12 months of going on line months and that we produce our motherload during low NG prices.

I just read that the very aged coal plants that needed to shut down or bring into new technology standards that were "saved" the the EPA cross interstate rules will shut down o their own for most of the year voluntarily due to their own ineconomics....HAH!